


A Crack In Time

by Turtlii



Series: The Spoiler Series [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-10-12 02:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20556938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turtlii/pseuds/Turtlii
Summary: When she was seven years old a man in a box fell from the sky and crash-landed in her best friends garden, and promised her that he would return in five minutes, now nineteen years old and twelve years late the Doctor returns to best friends Hollie and Amy and quickly learns that they're no longer the seven-year-old girls he met five minutes ago in body but possibly at heart. Unable to leave them alone with the strange crack the Doctor invites them in his magical time and space machine while he figures out what the crack in time and space actually is.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this one idea for a while and instead of hiding it away never to look at again the idea turned into this and now I think it's consuming my life...

Holliaet sighed and turned to face the redhead, her best friend who was kneeling on the floor, hands in prayer on her bed. She nervously turned towards the crack behind her on the wall. "Come pray with me Holliaet." Amy pleaded, opening one of her eyes for a second only to close it again when her friend nodded, her curly dark blonde hair bouncing as she hopped off the bed, standing on her sleeping bag before joining Amelia on the floor.

"Dear Santa." Amelia began as Holliaet closed her eyes. "Thank you for the dolls and pencils and the fish." Holliaet giggled at her friend, having only been told about her pet fish earlier that day. "It's Easter now, so I hope I didn't wake you, but honest, it is an emergency. There's a crack in my wall. Aunt Sharon says it's just an ordinary crack, but I know it's not, because at night there's voices, my best friend Holliaet has heard it too so please, please, could you send someone to fix it? Or a policeman. Or a-" Amelia stopped and Holliaet gasped slightly as they both heard a loud crash from outside in the garden. "Back in a moment," Amelia muttered before she and Holliaet stood up. Holliaet grabbed a torch from her friend's dresser. "Thank you, Santa," Amelia whispered, looking out the window before she and Holliaet carefully headed downstairs to investigate.

The two friends came face to face with a blue box lying on its side, smoke slowly rose from out of the slightly open door of the box, Amelia and Holliaet jumped as the doors were forced open and a grappling hook was thrown out, clawing itself into the ground and a rock.

Amelia and Holliaet watched as a slightly longish brown-haired man poked his head out of the box and groaned as he pulled himself up, he smiled at them as they frowned. He was soaking wet.

"Could I have an apple?" He asked as the two stared. "All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before." He pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the TARDIS before sitting inside. "Whoa. Look at that." His eyes widened.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked, looking at her friend for a moment who shrugged, unsure what to make of the whole ordeal.

"Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"The library?" Holliaet frowned. "But it's a tiny box."  
The man laughed, wobbling slightly on the edge of the box before his eyes widened and he gripped onto it to stop himself falling. "That's what you think."  
"And you're soaking wet." Holliaet crossed her arms at the man.

"I was in the swimming pool."

Amelia frowned. "You said you were in the library."

"So was the swimming pool."

"Are you a policeman?" Amelia asked.

"Why? Did you call a policeman?"  
Holliaet nodded. "Amelia has a crack in her wall."

"What crack?" The man asked before crying out and losing his balance, resulting in him falling to the ground. "Argh! "

Holliaet giggled but quickly stopped when Amelia shot her a look. "Are you all right, mister?" Amelia then asked.

"No, I'm fine." He waved a hand. "It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" He suddenly opened his mouth and a small amount of golden energy rose up and slowly disappeared. Holliaet's eyes widened as she stared at the man while Amelia frowned.

"Who are you?"

"I don't know yet." he shrugged. "I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

Holliaet frowned, "no, you're just a bit weird."

"No, no, no." He dismissed. "The crack in your wall. Does it scare you two?"

Holliaet and Amelia looked at each other before they both nodded. "Yes."

"Well then, no time to lose." The man jumped up. "I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." He walked straight into a tree and fell back down onto his back.  
Holliaet giggled while Amelia looked slightly concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Early days. Steering's a bit off." The Doctor replied and then pointed at Holliaet. "This is not funny."

The girl quickly stopped and the Doctor smiled before standing up and heading into the house.

Amelia grabbed an apple while Holliaet crossed her arms. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say Police?"

"You're all questions aren't you curly."

Holliaet huffed. "I hate my hair, it's not funny."

"Neither is me falling over." He stuck his tongue out, Holliaet did the same and Amelia handed the Doctor an apple. He bit into it before grimacing and spitting it back out. "That's disgusting. What is that?" 

"An apple." Amelia blinked.

"Apple's rubbish. I hate apples." 

"You said you loved them." 

"No, no, no. I like yoghurt." The Doctor nodded. "Yoghurt's my favourite. Give me yoghurt."

Amelia shrugged and grabbed a pot from the fridge, the Doctor poured it into his mouth before spitting it back out into the pot. "I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in." 

Amelia frowned and looked at Holliaet who shrugged. "You said it was your favourite." 

"New mouth. New rules." The Doctor shrugged. "It's like eating after cleaning your teeth. Everything tastes wrong. Argh!" He then started to twitch violently for a moment. " What is it?" Amelia asked as Holliaet grabbed her friend and pulled her back away from the Doctor.

"What's wrong with you?" Amelia asked. 

"Wrong with me?" The Doctor asked. "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something."

Holliaet looked at Amelia who shrugged and went and grabbed some bacon out of the fridge. The blonde headed upstairs to find a towel for the Doctor to help dry his hair off while Amelia cooked the food.

"Ah, bacon!" The Doctor beamed as he sat down, Holliaet returned back downstairs as Amelia put the bacon onto a plate. The Doctor rubbed his head with the hair towel before placing a piece of bacon into his mouth as Amelia set the plate down.

"Bacon." He spat it back out onto the plate. "That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?"

Holliaet sighed. "You wanted it."

"Oi." The Doctor pointed at the girl. "What did I say about new mouth, new rules."

Holliaet shrugged and bought out a tin of baked beans out of the cupboard. The Doctor grinned as Amelia poured the beans into a pot and heated them up. 

"Ah, you see? Beans." He nodded and shovelled a spoonful of beans into his mouth when they were done. The Doctors eyes widened and he ran to the kitchen sink, spitting them out while Holliaet placed butter onto bread. The Doctor wiped his mouth and nodded at the girl. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans." He clapped his hands together. "Bread and butter. Now you're talking."

The Doctor took one bite into the bread and quickly marched up to the front door, throwing the plate with the bread on it out. "And stay out!" He shouted.

The Doctor returned to the kitchen while Amelia hunted through the cupboards and the fridge. "We've got some carrots." She shrugged not sure what else to give him.

"Carrots?" The Doctor replied. "Are you insane? No. Wait. Hang on. I know what I need. I need, I need, I need fish fingers and custard." He grinned.

Holliaet and Amy looked at each other and frowned but did as the Doctor instructed anyway, when it was ready Amelia placed the fish fingers down onto the table while Holliaet poured the custard into a bowl. Amelia then got a large tub of chocolate ice cream and two spoons.

The Doctor dipped the fish fingers into the custard and hummed happily as he ate. Holliaet giggled and shovelled another spoonful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth.

"Funny," Amelia spoke up while her friend nodded in agreement.

"Am I?" The Doctor asked. "Good. Funny's good. What're your names?

"Amelia Pond," Amelia answered.

"Oh, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond." He hummed. "Like a name in a fairy tale, and what about you curly?"

The blonde girl huffed. "Holliaet."

The Doctor frowned and looked at Amelia. "What's up with her?"

"She hates her name," Amelia replied. "It isn't that bad."

"No, it is." Holliaet protested. "It's weird."

"No." Amelia protested. "It's different I like it, one day I'll name something after you, just because you're my best friend."

Holliaet giggled slightly and shook her head. The Doctor looked at the ginger. "Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No. We had to move to England." Amelia huffed. "It's rubbish."

"You would never have met me if you didn't move." Holliaet smiled.

Amelia smiled and the Doctor looked between them. "Which one of you lives here?"

"Me," Amelia answered.

The Doctor nodded and frowned. "So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."

"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."

"I don't even have an aunt." The Doctor replied.

"You're lucky," Amelia replied.

"I know." The Doctor nodded. "So, your aunt, where is she?"

"She's out."

"And she left you two all alone?" The Doctor replied. "Do your parents know?" He looked at Holliaet.

The blonde shrugged. "Never met my mum and dad." She replied.

"Oh." The Doctor answered. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She smiled. "Amelia is like my big sister."

"More like your mum," Amelia grumbled.

The Doctor frowned. "How so?"

"Holliaet keeps trying to get into trouble at school, I always have to stop her with Rory's help, she's almost as bad as our friend Mels, she just encourages Holliaet even more."

"Ah." The Doctor nodded. "A trouble maker, nice."

"I don't try, trouble just finds me." Holliaet protested.

The Doctor smiled. "Me too." He then looked at them both. "Neither of you seem very scared of being all alone in this big house."

"We're not." Amelia answered.

"Course, you're not. You're not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?

"What?" The two girls asked.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

The Doctor and two friends headed up to Amelia's room and the Doctor stepped forward, looking at the three to four-foot-long crack that was slightly W shaped in the wall.

"You've had some cowboys in here." The Doctor muttered then looked at the girls. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

"I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." Amelia muttered and handed the Doctor an apple with a smiley face cut into it.

"She sounds good, your mum." The Doctor nodded. "I'll keep it for later. This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it." The Doctor lightly ran a finger across the crack. "So here's a thing. Where's the draught coming from?" He pulled his sonic out and scanned it. "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey." He muttered. "You know what the crack is?"

"What?" Amelia and Holliaet asked.

"It's a crack." He answered. "But I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it then?" Holliaet asked.

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched," he touched one side of the crack before touching the other, "pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, can you hear?"

"A voice." Amelia nodded. "Yes, Holliaet has heard it as well."

The blonde nodded in agreement and the Doctor tipped out a glass of water onto the floor and pressed the glass against the crack. "Prisoner Zero has escaped?" He muttered.

"That's what I heard," Holliaet spoke up. "What does it mean?"

"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. And you know what that means?"

"What?" Both the girls asked.

"You need a better wall." He answered. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or-" He frowned.

"What?"

"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?" He suddenly said.

"Yes." She answered and he took Holliaet's hand. The blonde blinked, slightly taken back before she took her friend's hand and squeezed tightly.

  
"Everything's going to be fine." He smiled and aimed the sonic at the crack, pressing the button the crack widened and a bright light shone into the room. "Prisoner Zero has escaped." A voice echoed. "Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Hello?" The Doctor frowned. "Hello?"

"What's that?" Holliaet's eyes widened as Amelia asked, the three staring at a large eyeball looking at them through the crack, the crack then suddenly snapped shut, disappearing. "There, you see?" The Doctor smiled. "Told you it would close. Good as new."

"What's that thing?" Amelia asked. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard." The Doctor replied. "Whatever it was, it sent me a message. Psychic paper." He explained and looked at the paper. "Takes a lovely little message." He frowned. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. But why tell us? Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know."

Amelia and Holliaet both looked at each and followed the Doctor out of Amelia's room and into the corridor. "It's difficult. Brand new me. Nothing works yet." He explained. "But there's something I'm missing. In the corner of my eye." He stopped and his eyes widened as a bell tolled. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" He shouted, running through the corridor and out into the garden. "I've got to get back in there." The Doctor answered. "The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!" 

"But it's just a box." Amelia frowned. "How can a box have engines?" 

"It's not a box. It's a time machine." 

"What, a real one?" Holliaet's eyes widened. "You've actually got a real-time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised." Five-minute hop into the future should do it."

"Can we come?" Amelia asked Holliaet nodded in agreement, her mouth in a wide grin.

"Not safe in here." The Doctor dismissed. "Not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back." 

"People always say that." Amelia sighed. 

"Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me." He sat on the edge of the TARDIS and smiled. "I'm the Doctor." The two friends then watched as the Doctor jumped into the TARDIS "Geronimo!" They heard him shout before there was a loud splash. 

The two friends grinned and watched as the TARDIS dematerialised before they ran up to Amelia's room. Amelia packed a suitcase and headed back downstairs, sitting on it. Holliaet waited with her friend before sighing when the five minutes became ten and then twenty and then thirty. 

The little girl yawned and looked at her friend who was asleep on her suitcase. She took off her dressing gown and draped it over Amelia before she headed back upstairs and got into her sleeping bag, quickly falling asleep a couple of minutes after that.


	2. The Eleventh Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After that lovely prologue, it's time for the first chapter where we meet my beautiful OC Hollie who, just like Amy doesn't believe the Doctor is real.

Five minutes quickly became twelve years later, the two best friends now both nineteen years old had just finished school and been welcomed into the world of work.

The two girls sat in Amelia's old bedroom that only seemed to have a new layer of paint and a few small changes, they both laughed about something they had heard from a friend before they stopped, a loud bang echoed from downstairs. 

"Amelia?" They heard a man shout. "Amelia, Holliaet, are you all right? Are you there?"

The girl's eyes widened and they slowly crept into the bathroom, the blonde spotted a cricket bat on the way and grabbed it before entering the bathroom, they poked their heads out and watched as a very raggedy looking man ran up the stairs and knocked on Amelia's bedroom door. "Prisoner Zero's here." He shouted. "Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is-" without even thinking the blonde walked up behind the man and swung the bat as he turned around, hitting him on the head. He flew to the floor with a thud and the ginger gasped. 

"Hollie!" Her eyes widened at her friend.

"What!" She protested. "He"s an intruder."

"You can't knock him out."

"Well, I did." She replied. "Go get your police uniform on, Amy I have an idea." 

The ginger frowned at her friend. "I'm not kissing his head better."

"No." Hollie laughed. "He's going to think you're actually the police, go get me the handcuffs, we'll cuff him to the radiator in the hallway downstairs."  
Amy nodded and headed towards her room. Hollie sighed and dragging the man across the floor and towards the stairs.

"It can't be him," Amy shouted from her room. "Can it?"

Hollie sighed and winced when the Doctor accident hit his head as she dragging him down the stairs. "I think it is."

"But he isn't real!" She replied as she walked down the stairs, now in her police outfit, she handed the handcuffs to Hollie who cuffed the Doctors wrist to the radiator.

"He's here." Hollie shrugged. "He'll wake up soon, shall I put the kettle on?" She headed into the kitchen.

Amy followed her. "You're having a drink now? With a stranger in my house!"

"He isn't a stranger though." Hollie rolled her eyes. "When he wakes up you can interrogate him. I'll wait in here until he wakes up."

Amy sighed and followed the instructions of her friend, she stood in front of the Doctor and waited. Her eyes widened as the Doctor groaned slightly. Hollie left the tea she had made on the side and quickly walked into the hall and stood behind her friend who spoke into a fake radio.

"White male, mid-twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up. I've got him restrained." She pointed at the Doctor. "Oi! You, sit still."

"Cricket bat." The Doctor frowned. "I'm getting cricket bat."

"You were breaking and entering," Amy replied.

"Well, that's much better. Brand new me. Whack on the head, just what I needed."

"Do you want to shut up now?" Amy cut in. "I've got back up on the way."

"Hang on, no, wait. You're a policewoman."

"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"

"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia and Holliaet?"

"Amelia Pond and Holliaet Aria?" Amy replied.

"Yeah, Amelia and Holliaet. Little Scottish girl and her curly-haired English friend Where are they? I promised them five minutes but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to them?"

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."

"How long?"

"Six months." Holliaet lied. "I live here now."

"No. No. No." The Doctor whined. "No, I can't be six months late. I said five minutes. I promised. What happened to them? What happened to Amelia and Holliaet?"

"Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up. This guy knows something about Amelia Pond and Holliaet Aria."

The Doctor looked at Hollie. "How many rooms are in this house."

"I'm sorry, what?" Hollie frowned.

"On this floor." He replied, "how many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."

"Why?" Hollie frowned as Amy cut in.

"This is irrelevant."

"Because it will change your life." The Doctor looked at Hollie.

"Five." She replied and spun around, counting them all. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six." The Time Lord countered.

"Six?" Both Hollie and Amy frowned.

"Look."

"Look where?" They asked.

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye. Look behind you."

The two friends turned around. "That's, that is not possible. How's that possible?" Amy asked.

"There's a perception filter all round the door. Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed." Amy whispered.

"The filter stops you noticing. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now."

"I don't have the key. I lost it." Amy replied while Hollie slowly walked towards the room.

"How can you have lost it?" The Doctor shot her an annoyed look. "Stay away from that door!" His eyes snapped to the blonde. "Do not touch that door! Listen to me, do not open that." Hollie did the exact opposite and walked into the room. "Why does no-one ever listen to me?" He groaned. "Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" Using his free hand the Doctor searched his pockets for his sonic and sighed. "Again. My screwdriver, where is it?" He asked as Hollie scanned the slightly worn, empty room. Silver thing blue at the end. Where did it go?"

"There's nothing here." Hollie frowned.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the room. What makes you think you could see it?" He huffed. "Now please, just get out."

"Wait," Hollie called. "Silver, blue at the end?"

"My screwdriver, yeah.”

"It's in here."

"Must have rolled under the door." He answered.

"Yeah, it must have done that." Hollie nervously answered. "And then it must have jumped up on the table."

"Get out of there." The Doctor suddenly shouted. "Get out of there! Get out!"  
Hollie grimaced as she picked up the screwdriver covered in some kind of gunk. "Get out of there!" Hollie froze as she felt something looking at her. "What is it?" He asked. "What are you doing?"

"There's nothing here, but..." She slowly answered him.

"Corner of your eye." The Doctor reminded."

"And what is it I'm looking for?"

"Don't try to see it." The Doctor sharply cut in. "If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. Do not look."

Slowly Hollie turned around, her dark brown eyes widened in fear as she stared at a blue, snake-like creature with long, sharp teeth. The woman screamed and ran out of the door and to Amy and the Doctor.

"Holls!" Amy shouted hugging her friend only to let go as the Doctor took the screwdriver from the blonde.

"Come on." He hit it as the device stopped working for a moment. "What's the bad alien done to you?"

"Will that door hold it?" Amy asked looking at the door Hollie shut when she ran out.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, of course." The Doctor lied to them. "It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space. They're all terrified of wood."

The two friends stared at a bright light that shone under the door. "What's that? What's it doing?"

"I don't know. Getting dressed?" He replied and hit the screwdriver again. "Run. Just go. Your back up's coming. I'll be fine."

"There is no backup," Amy replied.

"I heard you on the radio. You called for back up."

"She was pretending," Hollie answered. "It's a pretend radio."

"You're a policewoman." The Doctor frowned.

"I'm a kissogram!" Amy pulled off her hat, allowing her long red hair to fall freely. The three-shot their heads over to the door of the hidden room as it fell to the ground, a man in overalls and a black dog stepped out of the doorway and into the hall.

"But it's just-" Amy frowned.

"No, it isn't." The Doctor answered. "Look at the faces."

They watched as the man-made the noise of the dog barking.

"What?" Amy stared. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"It's all one creature." The Doctor answered. "One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?" The man growled and bared its long needle-like teeth. "Stay, boy! These two and me, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for back up." He nodded at the ginger.

"I didn't send for back-up!" Amy shouted.

"I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives. Okay, yeah, no backup. And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back up, you'd have to kill us."

"Attention, Prisoner Zero." A voice echoed making the three frown and look around them. "The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."

"What's that?"

"Well, that would be back up. Okay, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration."

Hollie winced as the voice repeated itself. "Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

"Come on, work, work, work, come on." The Doctor gritted his teeth and tried the sonic again. He grinned when the cuffs clicked free, jumping up he grabbed Hollies hand and ran out with Amy following them.

"Kissogram?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes, a kissogram. Work through it." She rolled her eyes.

"Why'd you pretend to be a policewoman?"

"You broke into her house. It was this or a French maid."

"Tell us exactly what is going on?" Hollie demanded.

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"

"Yes." They both repeated.

The three-headed towards the TARDIS. Hollie froze while Amy stared at it next to her friend.

"Me too." He went to push on the door and huffed. "No, no, no, no! Don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding. Not letting us in."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." The voice said again.

"Come on." Amy tried to pull him away.

"No, wait, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The shed." He pointed at it. "I destroyed that shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one. Let's go."

"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." He then sniffed the shed. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late, I'm twelve years late."

"He's coming." Amy looked back.

"You said six months." The Doctor looked at Hollie. "Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go." Amy tried to drag him away.

"No this matters." He protested. "This is important. Why did you say six months?" He stared at Hollie.

The woman huffed and rolled her eyes before she finally snapped back. "Why did you lie!" She shouted at him. "Why did you say five minutes?"

"What?" The Doctor blinked.

"Come on," Amy begged.

Hollie shook her head and slowly headed off. The Doctor followed her with Amy. "What?"

"It doesn't matter," Hollie muttered.

The Doctor stopped and stared at Amy before looking at Hollie. "You're Amelia and Holliaet."

"And you're late," Amy replied before heading off again towards the village.

"Amelia Pond and hee best friend Holliaet,. You're the little girls."

"I'm Amelia, she's Holliaet and you're late." Amy shot back.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked.

"Twelve years is what happened," Hollie answered.

"You hit me with a cricket bat!" His eyes widened.

"Twelve years."

"A cricket bat."

"Twelve years and eight psychiatrists between the two of us," Amy added.

"Four each."

"Amy kept biting them and I just refused to talk."

"Why?"

"They all said you weren't real."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat..." The voice said again and again.

The Doctor stared at an ice cream van, the Doctor marched over. "No, no, no, come on." Amy whined. "What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

"What's that?" The Doctor asked. "Why are you playing that?"

"It's supposed to be Claire De Lune." The man shrugged.

Hollie frowned as the radio crackled, the repeated statement was coming through there as well.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Hollie asked as Amy looked even more confused than her friend.

The Doctor ran into a small house without thinking. Amy groaned as they walked into Mrs Angelos house. "Hello!" The Doctor happily announced and frowned at a large eyeball on the TV. "Sorry to burst in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area. Also crimes. Let's have a look." He took the remote and flickered across a couple of channels. Hollie frowned as they all showed the same image.

"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel. Oh, hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?"

Hollie snorted as Amy looked slightly nervous and tried to pull her skirt down. "Well, sometimes."

"I thought you were a nurse."

"I can be a nurse."

"Or actually a nun?" The Doctor stared at her as Hollie's laughter grew louder.

"I dabble."

"Oh, there is no need to laugh at Amy, Hollie." Mrs Angelo shook her head. "How's the art going?"

Hollie smiled and nodded. "It's going great."

"Amy, Hollie, who is your friend?" Mrs Angelo then asked.

"Who's Amy and Hollie?" The Doctor asked. You were Amelia and Holliaet."

"Yeah? Now I'm Amy and she's Hollie."

"Amelia and Holliaet, they were great names."

"Holliaet was stupid." Hollie shrugged.

"And mine was a bit fairy tale."

"And the curly hair." The Doctor whined suddenly noticing that Hollie's hair was now straight and not at all curly. "What happened to that?"

"I grew out of the curls." She shrugged. "I got too old for them."

"I know you, don't I?" Mrs Angelo frowned. "I've seen you somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand new face First time on." He lightly whacked himself on his cheeks. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?", He looked at Amy.

"I go to parties and I kiss people." The Doctor blinked. "With outfits." He blinked again and Amy huffed. "It's a laugh."

"You were a little girl five minutes ago." He pointed at her.

"You're worse than my aunt." Amy huffed.

Hollie winced at them as the Doctor pointed at Amy. "I'm the Doctor. I'm worse than everybody's aunt." He then blinked and looked at Mrs Angelo. "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." He placed the remote down. "Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language." He changed the subject. "They're broadcasting to the whole world." He poked his head out of the window and looked up into the sky. 

"What's up there? What are you looking for?"

"Okay. Planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a forty percent fission blast." A tall young man walked in and the Doctor spoke to him, looking at his face as he slightly bent down before standing back up. "But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-sized starship, that's 20 minutes. What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, twenty minutes. We've got twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes to what?" Amy asked.

"Are you the Doctor?"

Hollie face palmed herself. "He is, isn't he?" Mrs Angelo frowned. "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those drawing you did when you were little." He looked at Hollie. "And the little puppets you made Amy. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him."

"Shut up.", Amy hissed.

"Drawings."

Hollie sighed. "Had to get good somehow." She shrugged.

"Gran, it's him, isn't it?" He repeated. "It's really him!"

"Jeff, shut up." Amy snapped and looked at the Doctor. "Twenty minutes to what?"

"The human residence." He muttered. "They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet." Hollie's eyes widened as the Doctor added: "Twenty minutes to the end of the world.”

The three left Mrs Angelos house and walked into the centre of the village. "What is this place?" The Doctor asked. "Where am I?"

"Leadworth."

"Where's the rest of it?" The Doctor asked.

"This is it." Hollie shrugged.

"Is there an airport?"

"No." They both answered.

"A nuclear power station?"

"No.”

"Even a little one?"

"No."

The Doctor frowned. "Nearest city?"

"Gloucester," Hollie replied. "Half an hour by car."

"We don't have half an hour." He replied. "Do we have a car?"

"No," Hollie answered. "Can't afford a car." She shrugged.

"Well, that's good." He groaned. "Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut. What is that?" He asked walking to a small pond.

"It's a duck pond." Amy shrugged.

"Why aren't there any ducks?"

"I don't know. There's never any ducks."

"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?"

"It just is." Amy countered. "Is it important, the duck pond?"

The Doctor clutched his chest and the girl's eyes widened as he stumbled into the grass. "I don't know. Why would I know? This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet."

Hollie looked up at the sky and frowned as it began to grow dark. "But it isn't even lunchtime? Why's is it getting dark?"

Amy pointed at the sun as a large black disk covered the star. "So what's wrong with the sun?" The ginger asked.

"Nothing." The Doctor answered. "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet. Oh, and here they come." The Doctor called as he watched people run out their houses, mobile phones in hand as they pointed them up to the sky. "The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone." He grumbled in distaste.

"This isn't real, is it?" Amy asked. "This is some kind of big wind up."

"Why would I wind you up?"

"You told us you had a time machine."

"And you believed me."

"And then we grew up." Hollie shrugged.

The Doctor stopped moving and turned to her. "Oh, you never want to do that." He then hit himself on the forehead. "No. Hang on. Shut up. Wait. I missed it. I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw I saw, I saw..." The two friends frowned and followed the Doctors eyes to Rory, Amy's boyfriend who instead of taking photos of the sun was taking a photo of the man and his dog. "Twenty minutes." He nodded to himself. "I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me."

"No," Amy replied.

"I'm sorry?" He frowned.

"No!" Amy shouted, grabbing the Doctors tie and pulling him towards a car as a man opened the door. Hollie took the keys from the driver as Amy shut the Doctors tie in the door.

"No, no," the Doctor whined when Hollie locked the car, "what are you doing?" His eyes widened when he went to pull his tie free but nothing happened. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Who are you?" Hollie narrowed her eyes.

"You know who I am." He looked at her.

"No, really." Amy cut in. "Who are you?"

"Look at the sky." He quickly replied. "End of the world, twenty minutes."

"Well, better talk quickly, then." Amy shrugged.

"Hollie, I am going to need my car back." The old man spoke up.

"Yes, in a bit." Hollie rolled her eyes. "Go and have a coffee, Amy will bring them back."

"Right, yes. " The man nodded.

"Holls, Catch." He tossed an apple to the blonde who frowned and caught the fruit.

"Holls?"

"It's a nice nickname." He smiled.

"My friends give me nicknames, you're a stranger."

"No, I'm not." He countered. "I'm the Doctor. I'm a time traveller. Everything I told you twelve years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."  
Hollie blinked and looked down at the apple, her eyes widened at the fresh fruit with the smiley face carved into it. 

The blonde nodded while Amy crossed her arms. "I don't believe you."

"Just twenty minutes." He pleaded. "Just believe me for twenty minutes. Look at it." He nodded at the apple Hollie was holding. "Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes."

Amy looked at Hollie who nodded. "Ames it's the same apple." Hollie showed her. "I know it is, it feels all weird and tingly and old but new."

The Doctor stared at her. "Yeah, it does. That's time travel, Hollie."

Amy looked at her best friend before she nodded and unlocked the car before looking at the Doctor. "What do we do?"

"Stop that nurse." He pointed at a man and ran onto the village greenery. Hollie frowned and followed while Amy opened her mouth before she closed it and followed.


	3. The Eleventh Hour - Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a cold and it's very annoying right now but I still got a chapter :)

"The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" The Doctor asked grabbing the phone off the man.  
"Amy." Rory stared at her.  
"Hi!" Amy smiled. "Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend."

"Boyfriend," Rory replied.

"Kind of boyfriend." Amy shrugged.

Hollie rolled her eyes. "Definitely her boyfriend." She told the Doctor. Amy sighed slightly while the Doctor just looked at Rory.

"Man and dog. Why?"

Rory stared at the Doctor before it clicked, his eyes widened as he looked at Hollie. "Oh my God, it's him, it's actually really him!"

Hollie bit her lip before she whined. "Just answer his question, please."

"It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."

"Yeah, he came back," Amy added.

"But he was a story." Rory protested. "He was a game."

"Man and dog." The Doctor cut in. "Why? Tell me now."

"Sorry," Rory replied. "Because he can't be there. Because he's..."

"In a hospital, in a coma." Both the Doctor and Rory finished.

"Yeah..." Rory slowly added.

"Knew it." The Doctor grinned. "Multiform, you see?" He looked at Hollie and then to Amy. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind." The man barked at the four. The Doctor turned and stepped forward. "Prisoner Zero." He called.

"What?" Rory looked at the three. "There's a Prisoner Zero too?"

"Yes." Amy nodded.

The Doctor noticed one of the alien eyeball ships scanning the area. "See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He raised the device into the air and pressed the button, a moment later all the streetlights exploded and car alarms blared. The three humans laughed as they watched a group of firemen run after a fire engine that started to drive off by itself.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" He pointed at a red telephone box. The Doctors sonic then sparked and he yelped and dropped the device. "No, no! No, don't do that!" He cried.

Hollie ran over to the Doctor to see what happened and winced as she saw the smoke coming off his screwdriver. They all looked up when Rory called out: "Look, it's going." He pointed as the space ship moved away.

"No, come back." The Doctor stood up and looked at the ship. "He's here! Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here." He whined. "Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is-" He stopped as Amy shouted.

"Doctor! The drain." She pointed as Prisoner Zero disappeared down the drain. "It just sort of melted and went down the drain."

"Well, of course, it did."

"What do we do now?" She asked.

"It's hiding in human form." He muttered. "We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!" He lightly hit his head.

Amy frowned as the Doctor thought. "So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit-stop."

"All the times I came over to yours to play or to hang out." Hollie looked at her friend. "And neither of us realised you had a whole other room untouched."

Amy looked at Hollie before looking at the Doctor. "So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute!" She stared at him.

"They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because I am."

"What's he on about?" Rory frowned.

"Nurse boy, give me your phone." He ordered and held his hand out to Rory.

"How can he be real? He was never real." Rory looked at the two girls.

"Phone. Now. Give me."

"He was just a game," Rory said as he passed the phone to the Doctor. "We were kids. You two made me dress up as him." He pointed at his two friends.

"These photos, they're are all coma patients?" The Doctor asked as he flicked through the images.

"Yeah."

"No, they're all the multiform." The Doctor corrected. "Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"He had a dog, though." Amy frowned. "There's a dog in a coma?"

"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog." The Doctor shrugged. "Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him," he looked at Rory as he handed him his phone back, "the good-looking one."

"Thanks." Rory rolled his eyes.

"Jeff," Amy answered.

Hollie frowned at her friend. "Oh, thanks," Rory added again.

"Yeah, I thought we agreed never to call Jeff good looking ever again?" Hollie crossed her arms.

Amy shrugged. "Not my fault you two broke up."

The Doctor looked at Hollie and frowned. "You and Jeff?"

"What?" She stared at him. "I thought it was a good idea at the time."

“I think you made a good idea to break up, I couldn’t imagine you two.”

Amy sniggered at her friend as the Doctor shook his head at his own words. "He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop." He grinned. "I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital." He nodded at Amy and Rory. "Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Send Hollie every photo you took of Prisoner Zero, we need them all, phone us when you're done." Amy looked at Rory. "Your car. Come on." She dragged him away. "Hollie come with me, we need to find Jeff."

"Great." She grumbled. "I wasn't trying to avoid him or anything."

The two arrived at Jeffs home with his nan. The Doctor stormed in and swung the door open as Jeff slightly closed his laptop. "Hello." The Doctor nodded and held his hands out. "Laptop. Give me."

"No, no, no," Jeff begged, grabbing half of the laptop in a vice-like grip as the Doctor tried to pull it away from him. "No, wait."

"It's fine." He rolled his eyes and pulled on the laptop. "Give it here."

"Hang on!" Jeff shouted as the Doctor finally pulled the device away and out of Jeffs hands. Hollie gave the man an odd look as he shuffled nervously on the bed while she sat down beside the Doctor who smiled in triumph and placed the laptop in his lap, opening it up his eyes widened and Hollie let out a high pitched cry: "Oh my god!" She shouted, covering her eyes."

"Blimey. Get a girlfriend, Jeff." The Doctor commented before realising what he was saying, his eyes snapped to Hollie who glared at him. "Sorry." He whispered.

Jeff opened his mouth to speak but quickly snapped it shut as Mrs Angelo entered, the Doctor quickly deleted the page and Hollie sighed, thankful that she didn't have to awkwardly sit next to the Doctor while... that type of website was open. It was horrifying.

"Gran." Jeff awkwardly smiled at the woman.

"What are you doing?" She looked at the Doctor before she looked at Hollie and warmly smiled. "Hello Hollie, are you and Jeff okay now?"

Hollie groaned as Jeff looked over at her. "Nope." She replied.

The Doctor glanced at her and frowned slightly before shaking his head and looking at Mrs Angelo. "The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me." He grinned and opened up a website before hacking into the call. "Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."

"I like Patrick Moore." Mrs Angelo smiled.

"I'll get you his number." The Doctor winked. "But watch him, he's a devil."

Jeff frowned. "You can't just hack in on a call like that."

"Can't he?" Hollie asked just as the Doctor replied as well:

"Can't I?"  
Hollie watched in amazement when the Doctor actually did it, six different faces popped up on the laptop screen. The blonde frowned when the Doctor held up what looked like a black wallet at the face cam as Patrick Moore spoke up. "Who are you?"

"This is a secure call," another asked, "what are you doing here?"

"Hello." The Doctor moved the paper and placed it back in his pocket. "Yeah, I know you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this." He started to type on the keyboard.

"It's here too," Patrick Moore frowned, "I'm getting it."

"Fermat's Theorem, the proof." The Doctor explained as he typed. "And I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. My fault. I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie. Why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light travel with two diagrams and a joke." He pointed at the screen, Hollie snorted and shook her head at the joke the Doctor had sent across. "Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention."

"Holls can I borrow your phone?"

"My phone?" She frowned.

"Yeah, I need to write the code on something." He explained. "You'll understand."

Hollie shrugged and handed her phone to the Doctor who started to type. "What kind of code are you writing?"

"A computer virus." He looked up as the group of people in the call watched. "Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on." He then addressed the people in the call. "And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out." he waved a hand. "Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got. Any questions?"

"Who was your lady friend?" Patrick asked noticing Mrs Angelo watching the Doctor as well.

"Patrick, behave." The Doctor warned.

"What does this virus do?"

"It's a reset command, that's all." The Doctor answered. "It resets counters. It gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." He then slowly turned to Jeff who stared at the screen. "Jeff, you're my best man."

"You what?"

"Listen to me." He patted him on the back. "In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want and maybe, just maybe Hollie will forgive you but first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."

Jeff shook his head and looked at Hollie before leaning towards the Doctor. "No she won't."

"Why not?" The Doctor asked. "I'm sure Hollie won't let a silly argument get in the way."

"It isn't just silly though, I said you weren't real."

The Doctor blinked. "What?"

"She always kept talking about you." He explained. "All the time and I had enough, told her to grow up."

The Doctor looked over at Hollie who must have been texting Amy, her eyes glued to her phone. The Doctor sighed and slowly nodded. "I can see I messed things up." He admitted.

Jeff nodded. "Yeah." He agreed. "Why am I your 'best man' though?"

"It's your bedroom." He answered before taking Hollies hand, making her yelp as she almost dropped her phone. "Now go, go, go." He ran out before stopping and running back in. " Oh, and delete your internet history." He nodded then ran out again with Hollie.

The Doctor grinned as he spotted a fire engine, Hollie looked on slightly nervous as the Doctor happily ran over and jumped into the driver's seat. "You do know how to drive one of these right?"

"Can't be much different to the TARDIS he shrugged.

Hollie closed her eyes. "I'm going to die."

"No, you won't." The Doctor replied with a grin. "No dying today Holliaet!"

"It's Hollie." She huffed as the Doctor quickly sped off. "Not 'Holliaet', not 'Holls' just Hollie, you haven't earned the right for nicknames, Doctor, not yet.

The Doctor continued to drive and looked over at the woman who had her arms crossed. "I'm sorry okay." He apologised. "I didn't think the TARDIS would take me 12 years ahead, I was thinking five minutes."

"We waited for you, you know?" Hollie replied. "Like Amy's aunt had a fit when she got home and saw Amy in the garden, lying on a suitcase packed with clothes. The home eventually found out and Sharon refused me seeing Amy for a week."

The Doctor slowly nodded in understanding. To put it lightly he had fucked up and it cost the two best friends their childhood.

Hollie looked down at her phone as Amy's name flashed across the screen. "Ames?" Hollie answered, holding it up to her ear.

"Hollie, we're at the hospital," Amy answered, "but we can't get through."

"They can't get through," Hollie told the Doctor. "No one's being let inside."

"Tell them to look in the mirror." The Doctor answered.

Hollie frowned but repeated it anyway. "He say's 'look in the mirror.' I don't know what that means but that's what he said."

  
Amy looked in the glass window and grinned as she saw her reflection. "Haha!" She laughed. "The police uniform."

"Brilliant." Hollie laughed as well.

"Are you on your way?" Amy then asked. "You're going to need a car."

Hollie chuckled nervously and gripped onto her seat as the Doctor suddenly jerked the fire engine out of the way of a squirrel that ran across the road. "The Doctor found us a way of getting there. I'll see you in a bit if I survive the drive."

"What do you mean."

"Let's just say I don't think the Doctor has legally taken a driving test."

The Doctor stuck his tongue out at the blonde who giggled before the phone call hung up. "Feeling better?" He asked.

"I was fine anyway."

"Well, you look like you're less likely to strangle me." He answered.

"Nah." Hollie shook her head and turned to him. "Just can't believe you're real, I feel like I'm going to wake up any minute and have to get up and go to work."

The Doctor nodded. "No idea how that feels like but this must be better than that, right?"

"Oh definitely." Hollie grinned before laughing as the Doctor pressed a button and the sirens started to blare.

A few minutes later Hollie ran Amy up again and could only hear crackling. "Amy?" The Doctor called as Hollie placed the phone on speaker. "Amy, what's happening?" He frowned when there was no answer. "

"Amy, talk to me!"

"We're in the coma ward, but it's here," Amy replied. "It's getting in."

"Which window are you?" The Doctor asked.

"What, sorry?" She frowned.

"What window are you near?" Hollie spoke up. "

"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end."

"Oh, dear little Amelia Pond." The Doctor and Hollie heard what they presumed to be Prisoner Zero speak up. "I've watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you or your little friend never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond and her best friend Holliaet Aria, waiting for their magic Doctor to return. But not this time, Amelia, Holliaet or your Doctor are nowhere to be found."

"Amy duck!" Hollie shouted into the phone. The gingers eyes widened and she quickly pulled Rory down as the glass of the window behind them shattered and part of a metal ladder entered the building. A moment later the Doctor followed by Hollie climbed into the hospital by the ladder. "Right!" The Doctor helped Hollie to stand. "Hello. Am I late?" He asked as Hollie and Amy hugged. "No, three minutes to go." He looked at the clock. "So still time."

"Time for what, Time Lord?" Hollie frowned slightly, swearing she had heard that word before, but what was a Time Lord and how could she have heard the word somewhere before?

"Take the disguise off." The Doctor told Prisoner Zero. "They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

"The Atraxi will kill me this time." If I am to die, let there be fire."

"Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."

"I did not open the crack." Prisoner Zero replied.

"Somebody did."

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" Prisoner Zero smiled. "You don't, do you?" Prisoner Zero then changed her voice to the voice of a little girl. "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know." It sang. "Doesn't know. Doesn't know!" It then changed its voice back to an adult. "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

  
The Doctor smiled at the clock on the wall. "And we're off!" He pointed at it. "Look at that. Look at that!"

Hollie stared at the clock mouth open slightly in shock. "You actually did it." She then looked at the Doctor who grinned smugly before he looked at Prisoner Zero.

"Yeah, I know, just a clock." The Doctor shrugged. "Whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is? The word is Zero." He grinned. "Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here." He pointed at Hollie's phone.

The Doctor, Hollie, Amy and Rory all looked at the window as a bright light shone in. "Oh! And I think they just found us!"

"The Atraxi are limited." Prisoner Zero countered. "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

"Yeah, but this is the good bit." The Doctor grinned. "I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of?" He asked. "Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here." He grinned. "Ooo, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" He grinned and widened his arms. Hollie giggled and he grumbled. "Oh, I'm never saying that again. Fine."

"Then I shall take a new form."

"Oh, stop it." He waved an arm. "You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

"And I've had years." Prisoner Zero grinned.

Rory's eyes widened as they saw Amy and Hollie fall to the floor in the corner of his eyes. "Amy!" The Doctor and Rory shouted. "Hollie!"

"No!" The Doctor shouted running over. "Hollie, Amy? You've got to hold on." He lightly shook Hollie "Don't sleep! You two have got to stay awake, please."

Rory looked up and his eyes widened. "Doctor."

  
The Doctor turned around and came face to face with himself, or rather Prisoner Zeros version of himself. "Well, that's rubbish." He frowned. "Who's that supposed to be?"

Rory frowned. "It's you."

"Me? Is that what I look like?" He looked at Rory who frowned slightly. "How can you not know what you look like?"

"Busy day." He answered and looked back at Prisoner Zero. "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"

The Doctor and Rory watched in horror as little, seven old Amelia walked out from behind the Doctor. The Time Lords eyes widened further than they already were as another little girl came out from behind the Doctor. A curly-haired blonde seven-year-old.

"I'm not. Poor Amy Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her and her best friend. What a disappointment you've been to them."

"No, they're dreaming about me because they can hear me." He turned to Hollie. "Hollie, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in Amy's house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Hollie, dream about what you saw."

"No. No." Amelia and Holliaet both shouted. "No!"

They watched as Prisoner Zero transformed back into its natural form. "Well done, Prisoner Zero." The Doctor smiled. "A perfect impersonation of yourself."

"Prisoner Zero is located." The Atraxi stated. "Prisoner Zero is restrained."

"Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall." Prisoner Zero hissed.

Rory looked out of the window. "The sun. It's back to normal, right?" Rory asked. "That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over."

Hollie groaned and stretched her arms before she blinked and rubbed her eyes. "Oh god, I was dreaming." She grumbled. "The Doctor was here and-" She froze seeing the Time Lord kneel down and stare at her. "Oh."

The Doctor smiled and extended arm, giving her his hand to help pull her up. Hollie took the gesture while Amy opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times before sitting up and frowning. "What happened?"

"He did it," Rory answered. The Doctor did it."

"No, I didn't." The Doctor answered and typed onto the phone.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked.

"Tracking the signal back." He typed in a phone number. "Sorry in advance, Hollie."

"For?" She frowned.

"The bill." He answered and held the phone to his ear. "Oi, I didn't say you could go!" He snapped. "Article fifty-seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here, now." He ended the call. "Okay, now I've done it."

"Did he just bring them back?" Rory asked as the Doctor walked towards the door. "Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" Rory quickly followed.


	4. The Eleventh Hour - Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a while and I’m really sorry about the wait, college has been slowly sucking my life away but I’m now back with another chapter.

The Doctor tossed the phone to Hollie before he walked out of one of the wards. "Where are you going?" Amy asked.

"The roof." He answered before spotting the sign 'locker room'. He grinned and headed through the doors. "No, hang on." He replied.

"What's in here?" Amy asked.

"I'm saving the world - I need a decent shirt." He called over his shoulder. "To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."

"You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death," Hollie's eyes widened as the Doctor undid the buttons on his shirt before slipping the old tie off. "And now you're taking your clothes off." Hollie quickly covered her eyes while Amy just stared. "Amy, he's taking his clothes off."

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." He told them.

Hollie quickly spun around, wishing to give the Doctor his privacy while Amy just kept staring.

"Are you stealing clothes now?" Rory asked. "Those clothes belong to people, you know." He looked at Amy. "Are you not going to turn your back?"

"No." She grinned.

After the embarrassment of the Doctor stripping all his clothes off and getting a new pink shirt, trousers and picking up several different ties the four-headed to the roof of the hospital.

"Was this a good ide Doctor?" Hollie asked. "Because they were leaving and did stop cooking the planet.

The Doctor nodded. "Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." He stepped forward, the ties hanging loosely around his neck. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now."

Hollie rolled her eyes and laughed slightly at his comment before her eyes widened and she stepped back as a large eyeball dropped onto the roof and scanned the Doctor.

"You are not of this world." The Atraxi stated.

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He looked at his selection of ties and held a few up. "Oh, hmm, I don't know. What do you think?" He asked the eyeball before shaking his head and muttering something about the eye before looking at Hollie and Amy. "Thoughts?"

"Don't like the colour." Hollie shook her head at a tie the Doctor held up. The Doctor nodded and tossed the tie to her and grinned as she easily caught it.

"Is this world important?" The Atraxi asked.

"Important?" The Doctor repeated. "What's that mean, important?" He questioned. "Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" Hollie raised an eyebrow wondering what the Doctor was doing. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

A projection of the world appeared between the Doctor and the Atraxi before it disappeared and was replaced by tanks, people with guns and explosives. "No."

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

"No."

"Okay." The Doctor nodded while tossing a couple of ties in the direction of the humans, Hollie and Amy both giggled when a tie hit Rory right in the face. "One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." They watched as projections of different aliens showed up. Hollie's eyes widened seeing the Daleks, she looked over at Amy and frowned, how could she not bat an eyelid at them? They were half scared to death when the metal salt shakers appeared in the sky. "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?"

The projection then switched and Hollie and Amy both frowned as ten different faces appeared on screen, each of different men before the image stopped and the Doctor stepped through the projection and smiled when the projection disappeared. Hollie blinked not even noticing that he had placed on a tweed jacket he had bought up. She glanced at Amy as the ginger looked over at her and they both smiled before looking back at the Doctor who just stood there, staring at the eyeball, he didn't even look scared.

"Hello." He greeted. "I'm the Doctor." He chuckled slightly. "Basically, run."

The humans watched with the Doctor as the eyeball returned back to its ship before it quickly disappeared.

Hollie frowned and looked up at the sky not even able to see it any more while Amy looked over to the Doctor, or rather where the Doctor was before he disappeared off the roof. "Doctor?" She frowned. Hollie looked over at Amy and Rory before spinning around, he had gone. "He's gone." She looked over at Hollie.

The blonde shook her head. "No." She swallowed hard and ran to the fire exit. "No, no, no!" She shouted, running down the stairs, hoping that she could catch up to him and stop him from leaving. "Doctor she shouted as she heard a wheezing sound grow louder the closer she got to Amy's house. The blonde froze when she saw what looked like a ghost of the blue box disappear. "No." She whispered and sunk to her knees in front of the mark the box left behind in the grass.

Amy swallowed hard and stopped, seeing Hollie, slowly she walked up to her friend and pulled her up to stand, tightly hugging her. Hollie refused to give up the Doctor, she lost so many friends, jobs and a few boyfriends after they found out she believed in an 'imaginary man' she lost practically everything. The only thing she had left with her art and Amy and Rory, no one else believed her, why should they believe a 19-year-olds seven-year-old selves story against the hard cold reality, to them, time and space travel wasn't real so neither could the 'Raggedy Doctor'.

\---

Two years later Hollie and Amy sat on the Scottish gingers bed laughing at a joke Amy had just said before the ginger sighed and looked up at the dress hanging from her wardrobe. "I can't believe it's tomorrow." She mumbled before looking at Hollie. "I don't know if I'm ready for it."

The blonde smiled and stared at the dress for a moment before looking at her friend. "You love Rory don't you?"

"Of course I do." Amy frowned. "Why would you say that?"

"Why are you worrying if you love him then?" Hollie asked and tilted her head ever so slightly.

"I'm just scared." She admitted. "It's just been the four of us for so long now." She shrugged. "You, me, Mels and Rory and from tomorrow it's just me and Rory."

"And I'll be at the wedding." Hollie laughed.

"It's a shame Mels can't have a prison furlough."

"Well, she did steal a police car after being on her last furlough for the engagement party." Hollie shrugged.

"You stole a fire engine with the Doctor!" Amy protested.

"No." Hollie shook her head. "I didn't the Doctor did and it was borrowing, not stealing."

"Did you return it?"

"Well no-"

"Stealing."

Hollie huffed before looking down at her hands. "I miss him, Ames."

Amy sighed and took her friend's hand. "I know Hollie, I miss him too."

"No." Hollie smiled slightly. "Not like you, not an 'Amy missing' someone. I miss him differently. After he saved the world I couldn't stop thinking..."

Hollies best friends eyes widened. "You like him!"

"I don't!"

"Admit it!" Amy pointed at her.

"No!" Hollie replied.

"Because you like him." She laughed. "Hollie and the Doctor sitting-"

"Okay, okay." Hollie cut her off. "Maybe. I don't know, I'm still mad he left and didn't come back. I thought he would you know, he promised us."

"Twelve years before seeing us again. He probably changed his mind."

Hollie shrugged and Amy smiled. "Maybe though?" She lightly nudged her friend with her shoulder. "Maybe what?"

"Maybe I do like him." She rolled her eyes.

"I knew it!" Amy laughed and jumped up from her bed, skipping around her room. "I knew it, you like the Doctor."

"Only a little bit." Hollie protested, now standing up as well. "It's nothing though, he isn't coming back."

"He might do." Amy shrugged.

"He's going to be off somewhere saving a planet like in our stories we made up when we were kids-"

Amys' eyes grew wide when she heard a faint wheezing noise. "Or not." She grinned.

"Or what?" Hollie frowned, staring at her friend who ran towards the window and moved the curtain slightly.

"Amy if this is some trick." Hollie said to her friend as she rubbed her eyes to check that she wasn't dreaming."

"No!" Amy shouted happily and ran down the stairs. "Not a trick, this is real Hollie, he's here, he's back!"

Hollie grinned and grabbed the light pink dressing gown from Amy's bed before she ran down the stairs, forcing her arms in the dressing gown in the process. Hollie stopped behind Amy who had stopped and was staring at the Doctor who stood in front of his box, looking at it. "Sorry about running off earlier." The Doctor called to them. "Brand new Tardis. Bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now."

"It's you," Hollie said, walking up to him with Amy. "It's actually you, you're back."

"Course I came back." He frowned. "I always come back. Something wrong with that?"

Amy looked him up and down. "And you kept the clothes."

"Well, I just saved the world." He shrugged. "The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me. I kept the clothes."

"Including the bow tie." Amy eyed it.

"Yeah, it's cool." He smiled and fixed his bow tie. "Bow ties are cool."

Hollie smiled. "I like it." She announced before shaking her head and frowning. "Doctor, are you from another planet?"

"Yeah."

Amy looked at Hollie who shrugged, they both then looked back at him. "Okay."

"So what do you think?"

"Of what?" Amy asked.

"Other planets. Want to check some out?"

Hollie frowned as Amy asked him: "What does that mean?"

"It means, Hollie, Amy come with me."

"Where?"

"Wherever you like."

"All that stuff that happened. The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero." Hollie began, only to get cut off by the Doctor.

"Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning." He waved a hand. "There's loads more."

"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, all that stuff." Hollie started to ramble before she narrowed her eyes and she pointed at him.

Without thinking, Amy slapped him across the cheek. "That was two years ago!" Her eyes widened in horror and she pulled her hand back realising what she had done.

The Doctor jumped back and his eyes widened. "Ow!" He cried and cradled his cheek in his hand. "Guess it isn't just mothers who slap me." He grumbled. "Angry redheads slap me as well."

"That's 'angry _Scottish_ redhead' to you." Amy crossed her eyes.

The Doctor swallowed hard and took in Amy's words. "So that's..."

"Fourteen years!" Both Amy and Hollie shouted at him.

"Fourteen years since fish custard." He sighed. "Amy, and Hollie, the girls who waited, you've waited long enough."

Amy frowned and crossed her arms. "When we were kids, you said there were a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was in the library."

"Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So, coming?"

Hollie opened her mouth to answer but Amy cut in: "No."

"You wanted to come fourteen years ago."

"I grew up," Amy replied.

"Hollie?" The Doctor looked at her.

The blonde looked at Amy before she turned to the Doctor and slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry but I can't." She admitted. "Like Amy said, we grew up."

The Doctor smiled. "Don't worry. I'll soon fix that." He clicked his fingers and the TARDIS door opened.

Amy and Hollie's eyes widened as they stepped into the TARDIS, the orange glow hit their faces as they looked around the large console room.

"Well?" The Doctor asked following them in. "Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all." He then jumped up the stairs and grinned at the console.

Amy looked down. "I'm in my nightie." She stated.

Hollie laughed and nodded at her friend who was indeed in her 'nightie'. "Knew I was glad to put my dressing gown on."

"Oh, don't worry." The Doctor waved an arm. "Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool." He hummed. "So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will." He looked at them. "Where do you two want to start?"

"You are so sure that we're coming." Amy crossed her arms at him.

"Yeah, I am." He nodded.

Hollie frowned and looked between them as Amy looked at the Doctor. "Why?"

"Cause, Amy you're the Scottish girl in the English village, I know how that feels and you Hollie." He looked at the blonde, "When I met you, you had curls, you may not have them anymore but apart from that you're almost the same, Holls you stayed the same, wanted to come fourteen years ago."

Amy crossed her arms and looked at him through the glass time rotor. "You feel the same?"

"All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you're coming." He pointed at her.

"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?" Amy asked.

"It's a time machine." The Doctor replied and frowned at her. "I can get you back five minutes ago. Why, what's tomorrow?"

Hollie looked over at Amy who quickly answered: "Nothing." She shrugged. "Nothing. Just you know, stuff."

"All right, then." He nodded. "Back in time for stuff." The Doctor looked at Hollie who was still stood by the doors. "You coming with us Holls?"

The blonde smiled and slowly walked up the stairs to the console. The TARDIS hummed and Hollie the Doctor laughed.

"She likes you."

"She?" Hollie asked.

"The TARDIS." He answered." "So coming?"

Hollie nodded. "Course I am, I'm Amy's my best friend and you're right." She sighed. "I still want to come, even after fourteen years."

The Doctor laughed and pointed at her. "Ha!" He then looked at the console as the TARDIS hummed again before the Doctor grinned and snapped up the new, bronze and green sonic screwdriver that popped out of the console. "Oh! A new one! Lovely." He grinned and popped it in his pocket before leaning in and whispering to the console. "Thanks, dear."

Hollie wondered around the console before she frowned and stood beside the Doctor as he started to type on the computer that looked a lot like a typewriter. "Why us?"

"Why not?" The Doctor shrugged.

"No, seriously." Amy cut in. "You are asking us to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why us?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Fun. Do I have to have a reason?"

"People always have a reason." Hollie raised a brow and crossed her arms.

"Do I look like people?"

"Yes." Amy and Hollie both said at the same time.

The Doctor sighed. "Been knocking around on my own for a while. My choice, but I've started talking to myself all the time." He shrugged. "It's giving me earache, plus I feel bad for you two, I made you wait way too long."

"You're lonely and sorry." Amy tilted her head slightly at him. "That's it? Just that?"

"Just that." He nodded. "Promise."

Amy and Hollie looked at each other before they both nodded. "Okay."

"So, are you okay, then?" He asked them. "Because this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit, you know..."

"I'm fine," Amy answered. "It's just, there's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought. Well, I don't know about Hollie but I started to think that maybe you were just like a madman with a box."

Hollie laughed and nodded. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that after what happened two years ago."

"Well, Amy Pond, Hollie Aria, there's something you'd better understand about me, because it's important, and one day your life may depend on it." He turned to them. "I am definitely a madman with a box."

The Scottish ginger and the English blonde slowly smiled and the Doctor smiled as well. "Haha! Yeah." He spun around and gripped onto the console. Hollie and Amy followed, grabbing on as well. "Goodbye Leadworth, hello everything." He pulled a lever down. Amy and Hollie both looked up and watched the time rotor go up and down as the Doctor ran around the console.

He was definitely a mad man in a box.


	5. The Beast Below

Hollie stared in awe and laughed as Amy's hair started to fan out on its own in space. Her best friend was currently floating outside the TARDIS, only kept in the area of the space ship by the Doctor who held her there by her ankle.

"Come on, Pond." The Doctor pulled her back in. Hollie laughed as Amy did.

"Now do you believe me?" He asked.

"Okay, your box is a spaceship." She nodded. "It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space!" She laughed. "What are we breathing?"

"I've extended the air shell." The Doctor waved an arm. "We're fine."

Hollie looked out of the ship and smiled before she frowned seeing a large looking like a ship come into view. "Doctor, what's that?"

"Now that's interesting." He hummed. "Twenty-ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations."

The Doctor and Amy headed to the console and looked at the Doctors scanner to get a better look. Hollie yelped when she lost her grip while learning out of the TARDIS and fell out, slowly floating.

"Doctor?" She called.

"Migrating to the stars." He told Amy.

"Doctor?"

"Isn't that amazing?"

Hollie huffed before shouting louder. "Doctor, help!"

The Doctor walked over to the doors and poked his head out before he frowned. "Come on, Holls. I've found us a spaceship. This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland." He pulled her back into the TARDIS. "All of it bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal." He headed towards the console where Amy was still watching on the scanner. "That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked.

"Course we can." He nodded. "But first, there's a thing."

"A thing?" Amy and Hollie looked at him.

"An important thing." He nodded. "In fact, Thing One. We are observers only." He explained. "That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." Hollie frowned, that wasn't at all how she imagined. "Ooo, that's interesting." He commented after flicking the scanner.

"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?" Amy asked. "Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die." Hollie frowned at the image of a little girl crying. "It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that." Amy shook her head. "Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?"

Hollie frowned at the image of the Doctor walking towards the crying girl. "That's-"

"Doctor?" Amy looked at the open doors of the TARDIS. The Time Lord smiled and waved them over as the girl ran off.

Amy and Hollie both laughed and headed out of the TARDIS, they stopped and took in the busy market that was in front of them.

"Welcome to London Market." A voice said over a tannoy. "You are being monitored."

"We're in the future." Amy looked at her best friend. "Like hundreds of years in the future."

Hollie laughed and nodded her head in agreement. "And I've been dead for centuries."

Hollie giggled louder and the Doctor sighed. "Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one." He pointed at the ginger. "Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?"

"What's wrong?"

"Come on, use your eyes." He looked at them. "Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

Hollie frowned and slowly nodded. Something did seem unusual.

"Is it the bicycles?" Amy asked, seeing a man ride past. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Says the girl in the nightie." The Doctor pointed out.

Amys' eyes widened as she looked down. "Oh my God, I'm in my nightie."

Hollie laughed out loud again before her hand brushed against the fuzzy dressing gown. Her cheeks grew dark and she quickly hugged herself. "And I'm in my dressing gown." She announced.

The Doctor grinned and grabbed the blonde's hand, dragging her down the street. Amy followed behind. "Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."

"London Market is a crime-free zone." The voice on the tannoy announced.

"Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state."

Hollie frowned and watched as the Doctor picked up a pint glass off of a table. "Excuse me."

"What are you doing?" The man asked.

The Doctor placed it on the floor and kneeled down. Staring at it with intent. Hollies eyes widened as she realised what the strange alien was doing.

"But that-"

The Doctor jumped up and covered the blonde's mouth with his hand. She quickly jumped back, her eyes the sizes of large marbles.

"Exactly." He then picked up the glass and returned it to the table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?"

"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked, crossing her arms.

"Don't know." He shrugged. "I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"

"Where?"

"There." He pointed at the girl sat alone quietly crying.

The two friends watched as the Doctor repeatedly walked up to the crying girl a moment before she ran away. They decided to settle for a red metal bench as the Doctor kept following the girl for ten minutes or so before giving up and joining them on the bench.

"One little girl crying. So?" Amy frowned.

"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."

Hollie frowned while Amy asked the question on both of their minds: "Are you a parent?"

The Doctor looked out to the people passing by the market. "Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets." He explained ignoring Amy's question.

Hollie continued to frown. Is he really that old?

"They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."

Amy looked across to where the girl was sitting, or rather where she had been sitting. "Where'd she go?"

"Deck two oh seven." The Doctor read off a small colourful wallet "Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes." He chuckled. "Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere." He nodded at one of the booths with a creepy face smiling at them as he handed Amy the wallet.

"Why would we ask about them they're just things?" Hollie asked.

"They're clean." He shrugged. "Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. So Amy's going to ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths."

"Wait Amy's asking?"

"Well, I need you here with me Holls."

"Me?" She frowned.

"No, hang on." Amy cut in. "What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed."

"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" He stared at Amy who blinked. "Haha, gotcha. Meet us back here in half an hour."

"What are you going to do?"

"What I always do. Stay out of trouble." He pointed at Hollie. "Look, Hollie's helping me."

"So is this how it works, Doctor?" Amy crossed her arms. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"

"Yes." The Doctor agreed. "Come on Holls."

Hollie rolled her eyes and followed the Time Lord while Amy sighed and headed in the opposite direction.

\---

Hollie frowned as she followed the Doctor down a ladder, he hadn't said a word since Amy had followed Mandy. As soon as he got off the ladder he headed towards one of the walls and lightly touched it. "Can't be."

Hollie followed him down. "This the engine room right?" She questioned

"Mhm." He hummed pulling out his sonic screwdriver he started to scan the walls.

"Then why-" she began only to lightly tap the Doctor when she spotted a glass if water on the floor.

"Oh?" He returned his screwdriver to his pocket as a woman in a robe stepped out of the shadows of the dark engine room.

"The impossible truth in a glass of water." She stated, a mask covering her face causing Hollie to frown. "Not many people see it. But you two do, don't you, Doctor, Hollie?"

"You know me?" He blinked then held up a hand. "Wait, even better question: you know Hollie?"

The blondes frown deepened as the woman hushed them: "Keep your voice down. They're everywhere. Tell me what do you see in the glass."

"Who says I see anything?" He crossed his arms.

"Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it with Hollie then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"

Hollie shrugged. "The glass didn't move."

"And why is that?" The woman questioned.

"No engine vibration on deck." The Doctor cut in. "Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought we'd take a look. It doesn't make sense." He opened one of the small boxes and pointed at the wires. "These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see?" He held them up for a moment before dropping them. "And behind this wall," he knocked on it, "nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was... "no engine at all." The Doctor and the woman said together.

"But it's working though." Hollie looked at the Doctor. "The ship is travelling through space, we saw it."

"The impossible truth, Hollie. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."

"How though?"

"I don't know." She shrugged "There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us." She looked at the Time Lord. "Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Hollie your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!"

Hollie frowned at the mention of Amy while the robed woman handed the Doctor a small device.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked. "How do I find you again?"

The woman turned to them before she left. "I am Liz Ten, and I will find you."

They watched her go and Hollie blinked. "We need to find Amy." The Doctor announced grabbing Hollie's hand and pulling her away.

"Is Amy okay?" Hollie asked the Doctor as climbed the ladder before he grabbed her hand again and dragged her down multiple corridors that all looked the same. The Doctor stopped for a moment and checked the tracker he was given and sighed as the yellow light blinked to signal that they were getting closer. "Is she, Doctor?"

"What?" He blinked before he showed her the device. "The tracker says she is here."

"Where is 'here'?"

The Doctor frowned and pointed at her. "Good question." He headed further down the corridor and poked his head around the wall of another. "Voting station'." He muttered reading a sign hanging from the ceiling. "Why is she here."

"Doctor?" Hollie frowned spotting the girl Amy was following, sat down on a chair near one of the booth doors.

The Time Lord headed over and smiled at the girl. "Mandy!" He ran towards her. "What's going on, where's Amy?"

"In there." Mandy pointed to one of the doors. The Doctor bought out hid screwdriver and flashed it at the door. The door then opened and they watched as Amy stared at another Amy on a large screen.

"Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real." The Amy on the screen cried.

"Amy?" The Doctor carefully questioned.

"You've got to find the Doctor and-" Amy quickly scrambled to the controls and ended the recording.

"What have you done?" The Doctor asked.

Amy stared at her friends and shrugged. She looked at the blank screen and swallowed "I'm not sure."

Hollie entered the room after the Doctor and watched as the man in the tweed jacket pulled a chair from the large computer and stood on it, scanning the light bulb hanging from the ceiling. "Yeah, your basic memory wipe job." He hummed checking the readings on his screwdriver. "Must have erased about twenty minutes."

Hollie stepped towards the computer and frowned, pointing at the two buttons on either side of the controls. 'FORGET' labelled one while 'PROTEST' sat underneath the other.

The Time Lord stepped down from the chair and walked over to the blonde and they both looked at Amy. "You chose to forget."

Amy frowned. "But why would I choose to forget?" 

"Because everyone does." Mandy spoke up from the door. "Everyone chooses the Forget button." She shrugged.

"Did you?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm not eligible to vote yet." She replied with a frown. "I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."

"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned." He scoffed slightly. "Democracy in action."

"How do you not know about this?" He asked. "Are you guys Scottish too?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Hollie's English but me? I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie." He shrugged after trying a button on the panel. "Won't play for me."

"It played for me." Amy looked up at him.

"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human." He replied.

"Why not?" Amy asked. "You look human."

"No, you look Time Lord." He countered. "We came first."

Hollie snorted while Amy looked at the Doctor. "So there are other Time Lords, yeah?"

"No." The Doctor slowly shook his head. "There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story." He waved an arm. "There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This." He grabbed Hollie's hand, making her jump slightly. "Hold tight. We're bringing down the government." He slammed his free hand on the 'Protest' button and the door slammed shut locking them in and Mandy out.

The Smiler in the booth inside the room slowly turned around to reveal another face, much grumpier than the last, scowling at the three. Hollie swallowed hard as the floor under their feet began to move while the Doctor laughed and grabbed the humans hands. "Say wheee!" He exclaimed while Amy and Hollie screamed.

The Doctor, Hollie and Amy all fell into a sort of funnel as the floor completely disappeared before they were in a chute.

Hollie screamed as she landed in a large, dark and very smelly cave looking area. "Ugh." She groaned as she went to stand up, placing her hand into what was sticky gunk with different pieces of food material. She yelped as she was pushed forward into the waste as the Doctor fell into the cave. "Sorry." He apologised and stood up, helping the blonde before they jumped out of the way as Amy fell in. "High-speed air cannon." He grimaced. "Lousy way to travel."

"Where are we?" Amy asked standing up.

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship." The Doctor frowned. "I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."

Hollie shook her head and wiped her hands before holding her nose to try and block out the smell. " It's a rubbish dump," Amy stood up and wiped her hands on her clothes. "And it's minging!"

"Yes, but only food refuse." The Doctor leaned down and picked up some of the slimy leftover food. "Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."

"The floor's all squidgy," Amy muttered, lightly bouncing, "like a water bed."

"But feeding what, though?" He asked.

Hollie shivered. "It feels rubbery." She gagged. "Wet and slimy, ugh that's gross."

The three froze as what sounded like a large animal roaring echoed, making the whole cave vibrate.

"Er, it's not a floor, it's a..." He swallowed. "So..."

"It's a what?" Amy asked.

"Oh god." Hollie gasped understanding what was going on. "No!"

The Doctor slowly nodded at the blonde and then turned his attention to the ginger. "Amy... The next word is kind of a scary word." He took her hands. "You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."

Amy nodded and did as he said. "Omm."

Hollie winced as the Doctor told Amy what was going on. "It's a tongue."

Amy's eyes practically popped out of her head at his words. "A tongue?"

"A tongue." He nodded. "A great big tongue."

Amy stared at the Time Lord. "This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth!" She shouted.

"Yes, yes, yes." The Doctor nodded. "But on the plus side, roomy."

Hollie frowned and looked at her friend as she spoke up: "How do we get out?"

"How big is this beastie?" He grinned, ignoring Amy's question. "It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach." The animal grumbled and the Doctors eyes widened as the ginger and the blonde's eyes snapped to the Time Lord. "Though not right now."

Hollie sighed. "Doctor, how do we get out?"

"Okay," he nodded. "It's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is closed for business..." They all turned towards the entrance of the mouth where a wall of teeth was snapped shut. 

"We could try, though." Amy shrugged and went to step forward. The Doctors eyes widened and he held out his hands. "No, stop, don't move-" He froze as Amy placed a foot down and a rumble erupted from what seemed to be the stomach of the animal/

"Too late." The Doctor muttered. "It's started".

"What has?"

"Swallow reflex." He answered before getting his sonic screwdriver out. Hollie frowned as he waved it around in the air and activated it. "Doctor, what are you doing?"

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors." He explained

"The what receptors?" She repeated. 

The Doctor huffed. "The eject button!"

"How does a mouth have an eject button?" Amy asked.

Hollie's eyes widened. "Remember when we went out drinking that one time Amy and because of that night I cannot taste gin ever again?"

"Yeah."

"What happened that night?"

"Well, you drank a lot of gin before throwing- oh."

"Yeah," Hollie whispered. "Oh."

The Doctor nodded and straightened his bowtie. "Right, then." He announced looking at the ginger and then the blonde. "This isn't going to be big on dignity." He explained before shouting: "Geronimo!" while Amy and Hollie screamed at the oncoming vomit wave.

\---

Hollie groaned and gently rubbed her hand down her face as she woke up to an awful stench. "There's nothing broken," the Doctor called over, making the girl groan slightly at what sounded like a loud noise, "there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are both covered in sick."

Amy groaned and squeezed her eyes before she stood up and watched her friend do the same before she looked around. "Where are we?"

"Overspill pipe, at a guess." The Doctor shrugged.

Hollie gagged a moment after smelling herself. "It absolutely stinks!"

"Oh, that's not the pipe." The Doctor added.

"You're right about that." She muttered.

"Can we get out?" Amy asked.

"One door, one door switch, one condition." The Doctor explained eyeing the button labelled 'forget' by the door. "We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?"

"That's the carrot." He spun around before noticing the two smiler booths behind him as they lit up. "Ooo, here's the stick."

"I don't understand what they have to do with this place?" Hollie frowned. "What are they."

"Protecting whatever it is trying to stop us from finding out what is going on." He replied before looking back at the smilers. "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?"

The smilers turned around and the faces because very angry. " No, that's not going to work on me, so come on." He clapped his hands together. "Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" The faces that were very much frowning before scowled at the Time Lord who rolled his eyes. "Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?"

The booths then opened and the smilers stepped out. Hollie stepped back with Amy as the Doctors face fell. "What now?"

"Well-" the Doctor began only to stop as the woman with the mask, only she wasn't wearing the mask now stepped between the Doctor, Amy and Hollie before she shot the smilers.

"Look who it is." The Doctor nodded. "You look a lot better without your mask."

"You must be Amy." She looked at the ginger. "Liz. Liz Ten." The two shook hands and Liz grimaced at the squelch as she felt the sick on her skin.

"Hi."

"Yuck." She let go and shook her hand for a moment. "Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah?" She nodded at the girl who stepped into the room and waved. "She's very brave."

"How did you find us?" The Doctor asked.

"Stuck my gizmo on you." She tossed what could only be her tracking device to him. "Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot." Hollie and Amy snorted as the Doctors face fell. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

"Your family?" The Doctor frowned following Liz as she walked over to the smilers.

"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." She headed out. "The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two." She rolled off. "Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."

Hollie raised her brows at the Time Lord in slight shock. He was practically a child in an adults body, how could he of all people do that "Liz Ten." He noted.

The woman suddenly turned around holding her guns. "Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!"

The Doctor quickly ducked, pulling Hollie and Amy with him, only seconds before Liz shot at the repaired smilers from before. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."

Hollie and Amy both stared at Liz as she stared at the Doctor before she nodded and headed down a corridor, the Doctor quickly followed with the two humans behind him.

When she was seven years old a man in a box fell from the sky and crash-landed in her best friends garden, and promised her that he would return in five minutes, now nineteen years old and twelve years late the Doctor returns to best friends Hollie and Amy and quickly learns that they’re no longer the seven-year-old girls he met five minutes ago in body but possibly at heart. Unable to leave them alone with the strange crack the Doctor invites them in his magical time and space machine while he figures out what the crack in time and space actually is.


End file.
